Young Writers Society

Hi people, so I came up with an idea about a romantic fanasty story. It takes place in the rual town in America, in an agracultural area. In the story there are two young adults. After an argument or somthing with her boyfriend, his girlfriend goes in her car and drives off,gets into a carwreck after acceadently hitting a fox and gets turned into a fox. And thus begines her journey to find her boyfriend --- and try to find a way to show him that its her...

Any ideas for my story? Ideas in general? What could happen to my fox?

I was thinking about the whole "being transformed into an animal thing" being some sort of ledganed and it turns out to be true.....any ideas for a "story" behind this? I was thinking somthing about animal spirts...

Why is hitting a fox a big deal?

Foxes are small— they usually just end up as roadkill, not doing any damage to the car.

I'm all for the idea. Animal Writers of YWS, here we come.

But seriously. Are you choosing the animal to be a fox because you've researched foxes well, because you think they're cute, or because a fox has a symbolic meaning to the story? Think of more realistic roadkill accidents. Deer can certainly do a number to your car, but they lack the researchability to them. A wolf can dent your car for sure, but they're typically seen as bloodthirsty beasts. To sum it up, think of other animals and what they could do. But if you're set on the fox, then make it so your FMC swerves to avoid the fox, but the road conditions are bad enough to wreck the car. And to kill the fox, you should have the car hit it anyway. Sorry, I just like the idea of turning into an animal.

Well, anyways, on other matters of plot...
The rest of it sounds great. A bit like Brother Bear, Beauty and the Beast, or this other one whose name escapes me right now, but... It still sounds like it could be a good read.

Deer can certainly do a number to your car, but they lack the researchability to them.

Except deer have a really, really rich mythology to them in various Native American traditions across North America. They're everything from father figures to the innocent, depending on which people you select. They also show up in mythology basically wherever you have mythology, so you could be surprised what exists about them.

A wolf can dent your car for sure, but they're typically seen as bloodthirsty beasts.

Again, this depends on the mythology. Wolves appear around the world and their tales are varied, from demonic to benevolent. It depends on your source.

When selecting animal mythology, remember Europe isn't the only place that has it. Do your research into specific places— by that I mean name a people and look into that people, specifically, instead of going by continent. You can start at the continent level, but if you really want to get a good, honest representation, then you'll have to narrow it down. You could end up with something really unique and steeped in culture, that puts a twist on the tired old stereotypes.

Rosey is absolutely correct about the mythology of deer. Depending on where your story is set (it sounds like it might be in North America), there are countless legends and stories involving deer, and not all of them are mythological in nature. Anyone who has lived in a rural area with a large deer population will have stories about deer (and various other wildlife). The points of those stories can range from "deer are stupid" to "deer are crazy" to "deer are darlings" to "deer are tougher than nails" and everything in between (and then some).

If you're looking more for mythological elements though, you'll need to know exactly where your story will be taking place because different tribes had different stories, and nothing is more jarring to someone who knows mythology than to see a story being used in an area it doesn't belong to. It'd be like using Greek mythology in a Nordic setting.

In general though, across various culture deer are associated with wisdom, power, and speed. Deer, especially white ones, are difficult or nigh impossible to capture and hold great magical significance, with the appearance of a white deer signalling an event of great importance.

Wolves also have a very rich mythology behind them, and while they were historically feared, they were also greatly admired for their loyalty and courage. The view of wolves as only bloodthirsty beasts is a relatively new one, and it came about primarily due to ranchers seeing wolves as nuisances that kept attacking their cattle and/or sheep. Wolves in reality are quite shy (like most predators), especially around humans.

Anyways, going back to the questions in the first post, instead of a fox, you might want to consider a coyote. They're substantially larger than a fox, and so they do quite a bit more damage to a vehicle. On top of that, the coyote is often seen as a trickster, and it sounds like a tricksterish thing to transform the one who killed a coyote into a coyote. Coyotes are also widespread across the North American continent, so that broadens the possible range of areas for you to set the story in.

Coyotes basically are the North American analogue for Europe's foxes, if the trickster element is why you went with the fox initially.

It's also worth noting that North America has multiple species of foxes, the two most common being the gray and red foxes. The red fox is larger and is less shy of humans than the gray, among a number of other behavioral differences between the two.

This story looks good.I think it has major potential, but I agree with the others. Maybe try another animal? But then, maybe the fox fits another part you have planned so... depends what you want to happen along the way of finding the boyfriend.